The Dark Kingdoms

Written by a South African born writer & journalist in 1975.

As a book which tracks the history of three separate countries during the colonialism in the 19th Century, an proposes a comparison in the ways these three countries reacted, I don't find this fully successful.
As a book which discusses how these countries reacted, and more specifically how each King approached relations with the Europeans, it is more successful. For me there is too much which differs going into the situation for a direct comparison - especially Lesotho, which was quite remote to the issue of slavery.

Given the frequent change in African country names and often borders, this is a bit confusing.
The first country examined is Congo. At the time, the Kingdom of Kongo covered northern Angola, Cabinda, the Republic of the Congo, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the southernmost part of Gabon. Confusing hah?
In general terms, the Congo largely remained open to Europeans, and King Affonso welcomes the Portugese adopted their customs and religion. Congo was largely tied up in the supply of slaves, and didn't fare well.

The second country examined is Dahomey. Dahomey would later become the Peoples Republic of Benin, and then the Republic of Benin, as it is now. Dahomey did its best to remain isolated and King Gelele avoided contact with the Europeans, although through indirect means he traded slaves with them at the sea border. King Gelele however, remained isolated in the inland capital and made contact difficult. Dahomey, known for its Amazon warriors and human sacrifice, and famously visited twice by Richard Burton. Dahomey was aggressive towards the Europeans.

The third country examines is Lesotho, the odd man out, if you will. Deep in Southern Africa, and now surrounded by the lands of South Africa, Lesotho (it was previously known as Basutoland) was caught up in the British and Dutch conflicts over South African borders, which spilled into the lands surrounding Lesotho - the escaping Cape Colony, the Orange River Sovereignty and Natal. King Moshesh, who engaged early on with French Protestant Missionaries (Eugene Casalis in particular) attempted to negotiate and make treaties with the British. King Moshesh proved to make intelligent decisions and clever negotiations, and avoided direct warfare a number of times. The British were indecisive in their support of Moshesh and at time attacked themselves, but ultimately it was the Boers who came closest to defeating the Basuto, but at the last minute the British agreed to annexe Lesotho, whereby the Batuso become British citizens, and were offered the protection of the British from the Boers.

The dust cover sums up the book (in an over-simplified way) Affonso met the whites as a supplicant, Gelele as an enemy, Moshesh as an equal: his is the only kingdom to survive.Three and a half stars for me, rounded up to 4 stars.